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1. Nice is a large city, and most of the coast around it is also built up. The Cinque Terre are five tiny villages surrounded by rugged countryside.

2. The only public transport from Nice to the Cinque Terre is by train. This would take at least 5 hours and would require at least 3 changes of train. It is 280 km between the two places. You cannot do a day trip. Even by car on the motorways it would take at least 3 hours (plus any stops) each way.

As sydneynick points out such a trip could only be done by using two bases and taking trains between them. There is no ferry.

Altho' Nice is indeed a biggish built up area there are excellent coastal and mountain walks within an hour or so - Eze, Cap d'Ail to Monaco, Cap Ferrat, St Anges, Cap d'Antibes etc etc as well as higher into the alpine reaches of the Mercantour National Park.

thankyou all three replies...i think what may sway me between the two, is the possibilty of heading into the country around and in the national park Mercantour it looks fantastic! is there transport from Nice into this National park? how far is it?if so,how do I access the info and do anybody know where might be a good place to stay if overnighting in that area? I think I am getting there now, thankyou all.

nb -its always a good idea to have some cash with you when inland as card machines might be non existent or out of order due to faults -its not much fun to be told the next cash machine is 25km away over a mountain pass.

There is a new bus service to St Martin Vesubie that starts from the Nice bus station designed for walkers to go into the hills and get back in a day. It was started to reduce the traffic up into the hills.

There was always a bus service to st martin vesubie but this is an additional summer express bus service for 5 euros return which also includes the option of free connnections with navettes to le boreon/ lac superieur and madone de fenestre.

you can also pay on the navette the one euro for the navette ticket or use a ticket azur.

The express bus option is 7am to st martin and 17hr return from st martin

Sadly ,the express serrvice finishes for the summer on the 31st august and there are no updates yet about the navette service after that date